Recently.....

Great work by all the volunteers last Sunday. We started the work cutting back the Elders on the north side of the Finger Lakes. Despite a dodgy forecast we had a good turnout and managed to get quite a bit done with the bonus being that the rain held off so we all stayed dry. We'll probably be back there again next month to finish off, especially as the water levels around the park will likely prevent us working on most of the other tasks that need to be done.

There has been plenty more rain this week and the main lake is overflowing at the Beach making good use of the new sluice the volunteers built last year. The river level has fluctuated during the week bringing flooding to the east side of the Finger lakes and Press Mead on and off. This weekend the level has dropped back a bit and the park is accessible all round although wellies are the preferred footwear still.

Saturday dawned clear and bright with no frost. At least 6 Little Egrets were in the roost with 4 moving out onto the flood waters on Kings Mead at first light. Still only a few hundred Jackdaws at roost but still quite a spectacle when they all get up, especially with a beautiful sunrise behind them like this morning, what a noise!

Kingfishers are active around east Fingers and the north east corner of the main lake. We also had a visit from some of the 100 Acre Lapwings but unfortunately we were along the Spit so we missed a low level pass over the main lake, just managed a snap as they headed back to 100 Acre.   

Lapwings high over the main lake

Plenty of Song Thrushes singing around the park, this guy was at the Kissing Gate in some nice early morning light.

Singing Song Thrush

The bright start to the day provoked a Chiffchaff into singing by the STW entrance. There were only low numbers of Golden Plovers on 100 Acre along with ~350 Lapwings. There were at least 8 Little Grebes on Meadow Lane GP.

The flood waters are always worth checking out and there were 32 Pied Wagtails on Kings Mead when we returned to the park.

Duck numbers remain relatively low although they vary from day to day. Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Gadwall and Teal can usually be found along with the resident Mallards.

I popped down to neighbouring Willington GP on Saturday evening for the Starling roost but hardly any showed up. I will check again sometime but it looks like the roost may have moved elsewhere. The sunset made up for the lack of Starlings and there was a good number of Lapwings on the flood water in the field with the Barnacle Geese.

Lapwings

 

A handful of Starlings

The moon showed well!

The Moon

Saturday 14th December - Chiffchaff hunt

An unusual sight in the park was this Pheasant perched in a tree by the main path near the Steps. It seemed quite happy and did not move as joggers and dog walkers passed underneath. It's not unusual to see Pheasants in the park but I've never seen one here before. 

Pheasant

After last weeks Tristis type Chiffchaff along the cycle track we decided to have another look along there to see if we could find it again and maybe photograph it this time. Unfortunately we did not find that individual although we did have five Chiffchaffs, all seemingly collybita. The calls heard were certainly the collybita type call and the plumage seemed normal enough on all of the individuals. All were found along the track between the sewage works entrance and the corner of Meadow Lane.

Chiffchaff

The Golden Plovers and Lapwings were again in the crop field by the bypass although only in small numbers, much larger numbers were on the opposite side of the bypass. A passing Sparrowhawk put up the flock at one point. A single Egyptian Goose was still present in the same field.

Golden Plovers and Lapwings

Back in the park we watched this Grey Heron swimming in front of Kramer hide. The new Kingfisher perch was not in use but we watched a Kingfisher in a bush on the opposite bank. Hopefully it will progress to the perch in time.

Grey Heron

Following are a couple of pictures taken when the ringers were in a couple of weeks ago.

Redwing

Treecreeper

Always great to see birds in the hand but especially a couple of crackers like these two!